Winding Refn plans ‘Only God’

Director works on Bangkok-set modern Western

Danish helmer Nicolas Winding Refn is bringing East and West together with “Only God Forgives,” a new project that the filmmaker is writing, directing and producing.

Project is a Bangkok-set modern Western that sees a Thai police lieutenant and a gangster settling their differences in a Thai-boxing match.

Refn, whose “Valhalla Rising” screens out of competition in Venice, is also in negotiations with Gore Verbinski to direct a yet-to-be-titled heist pic that Verbinski is producing.

The director, who first made his name with the violent “Pusher” trilogy of pics, has a full slate of potential projects to which he’s attached, including the Keanu Reeves-starrer “Jekyll” and Paul Schrader-scripted “The Dying of the Light,” about a CIA agent afflicted with Alzheimer’s on his final mission.

It is unclear at this stage which of the projects Refn will direct first, but one thing for certain is that helmer is unlikely to return to Danish-language pics anytime soon.

“I don’t know if I’ll even make a Danish film again,” Refn told Variety. “It makes such a difference in terms of distribution if I make English-language films, especially in the U.S. As for which project goes first, we will see. The film business can be crazy.”

Wild Bunch is handling international sales for “Valhalla Rising,” a bloody epic about Viking warriors.